Rugby team addressing chemistry in dawn of new era
- battles Guadalupe in South Zone final Saturday at GDF
By Akeem Greene
New players will be blooded with an eye on the future and a new winning formula is hoped to be achieved to put Guyana’s rugby atop the summit of success is the of philosophy players and coaches have adopted.
Senior member of the National Men’s Rugby 15’s team Jamal Angus insisted the rude awakening in the Americas Challenge Series has made the team revisit tactics.
The series featured the likes of Colombia, Paraguay and Mexico and it was the top tier rugby the management were harping over playing for quite some time.
Things certainly did not go according to plan, with them suffering some crushing defeats, however, as the dust settled, they were able to see weak areas.
The first step in regaining a spot at the series starts Saturday against Guadalupe on Saturday at the Guyana Defence Ground in the Rugby Americas North-South Zone final from 15:30h.
Angus stated they are working assiduously to create a new winning formula and build momentum towards a hopeful return to Colombia.
“We have been trying to focus on getting a pattern going. For the last few years we have basically have been playing individual rugby and seeing that some of the bigger guys have been going out, we have to focus more on getting a pattern and keeping it during the game,” the experienced player stated at a recent training session in the National Park.
The face of the team is changing with younger players being afforded opportunities, and it is a facet that brings diversity to the squad, according to Angus.
“They are young but they been around rugby for a while so it is getting everyone accustom to the pattern and drilling the pattern in our heads. The youths bring a different type of thinking, a different style of rugby and we are in the process of changing up a bit but I think they are different ideas flowing through the group.”
The Panthers man acknowledged the match is a must-win and the players are locked on running well-oiled and mindful of past indiscretions.
“Since I came into rugby one of the most important things we have to work on is our scrum, our lineouts and our maul defence. Defence, in general, is one of the things that hampers us a bit. We know that this team can score at any time but our defence needs to be more solid.”
He added, “We have tried to get this pattern going…we want everyone to know their roles. We don’t need to rely on one man being that good that he makes a break, we are trying to get more team-oriented try and team-oriented play.”
Should Guyana defeat Guadeloupe they will host North Zone winners Bermuda (who defeated Jamaica 43 – 14) in May.
The winner of that fixture will have the right to play the loser of the Mexico versus the Cayman Islands in the latter half of the year for promotion into the Americas Challenge Championships.